“Not for sale”: Taiwan criticized Elon Musk’s words about China

Taiwan has told Elon Musk he is “not for sale” following recent comments about China. The criticism of the billionaire came after Taipei said it had detected a large number of Chinese aircraft crossing its air defense identification zone.

Taiwan “is not for sale,” the island’s foreign minister said in a stern rebuke to Elon Musk, who has argued that Taiwan is an integral part of China. His comments came after dozens of Chinese warships and aircraft were spotted near Taiwan during suspected military exercises, The Guardian writes.

Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, as well as electric vehicle companies Tesla and SpaceX, made comments from the All-In Los Angeles summit uploaded to YouTube this week.

“Their [Пекина] the policy was to reunite Taiwan with China. From their point of view, perhaps it is analogous to Hawaii or something like that, as an integral part of China, which is arbitrarily not part of China, mainly because … the US Pacific Fleet forcibly stopped any attempts at reunification,” said Elon Musk.

Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu responded in a post on X (formerly Twitter) late Wednesday that he hoped Musk could ask China to “open up @X to its people.” As The Guardian notes, China is blocking X along with other major Western social networks.

“Perhaps he thinks it’s good policy to ban it, like shutting down @Starlink to prevent Ukraine’s counterattack against Russia,” the Taiwanese minister added, referring to Musk’s refusal of Ukraine’s request to activate his Starlink satellite network to attack Ukrainian troops based Russian Navy ships in Sevastopol.

“Listen, Taiwan is not part of the People’s Republic of China and is certainly not for sale!” – said Minister U.

As The Guardian notes, this is not the first time that Elon Musk, who has a large Tesla plant in Shanghai, has irritated Taiwan. Last October, the billionaire suggested that tensions between Beijing and Taipei could be resolved by handing over some control of Taiwan to Beijing, prompting an equally severe rebuke from the Taiwanese administration.

Beijing maintains Taiwan is a province of China and Xi Jinping has vowed to reunite with the island, using force if necessary. But Taiwan’s government rejects the prospect of Chinese rule.

In response, Beijing has increased pressure on Taiwan through economic, diplomatic and military means, The Guardian points out. This week saw China’s biggest military activity near Taiwan since major military exercises in April.

China’s People’s Liberation Army sends planes and ships toward Taiwan almost daily, often entering its air defense identification zone and crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait. Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said Thursday that it detected 68 aircraft and 10 ships around Taiwan in the previous 24 hours, including 40 aerial crossings of the median line.

Flight paths in recent days show unusual activity, with longer time spent on the Taiwanese side of the line and the apparent escort of a PLA carrier strike group that passed the southern tip of Taiwan in the Western Pacific. Analysts said a second group of ships had crossed its northern tip and were heading to join the strike group.

Japan’s Defense Ministry said late Wednesday that the Shandong, one of two PLA aircraft carriers, was located southwest of Taiwan’s main island, near the Philippines.

The proposed military exercise, which has not been announced by Beijing, is potentially a response to recent activity in the region by US and Canadian navies, as well as joint exercises with other US allies, including the Philippines, The Guardian notes.

On Wednesday, Chen Binhua, a spokesman for Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office, accused Washington and Taipei of colluding to bolster the island’s defenses. Chen said such moves only increase the dangers Taiwan faces, China Daily reported.